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[[File:1976 Republican National Convention.jpg|right|thumb|325px|Reagan and Ford at the 1976 Republican National Convention]][[Vice President of the United States of America|Vice President]] [[Gerald Ford]] assumed the office of the [[Presidency]] in the midst of an extremely difficult domestic and international situation when President [[Richard Nixon]] resigned. Ford is credited with restoring dignity and trust back to the White House, but having been President less than 2 years and having pardoned Richard Nixon which upset a large percentage of a confused populace, Ford had an uphill battle to win an election for President in his own right.   

[[File:1976 Republican National Convention.jpg|right|thumb|325px|Reagan and Ford at the 1976 Republican National Convention]][[Vice President of the United States of America|Vice President]] [[Gerald Ford]] assumed the office of the [[Presidency]] in the midst of an extremely difficult domestic and international situation when President [[Richard Nixon]] resigned. Ford is credited with restoring dignity and trust back to the White House, but having been President less than 2 years and having pardoned Richard Nixon which upset a large percentage of a confused populace, Ford had an uphill battle to win an election for President in his own right.   

In the primary Ford narrowly defeated California governor [[Ronald Reagan]], a contest that went all the way to the convention floor. Ford was declared the winner.  The Democrats nominated political-unknown [[Jimmy Carter]], Governor of [[Georgia]] and peanut farmer, who won his party's nomination.   

 

In the primary Ford narrowly defeated California governor [[Ronald Reagan]]. Reagan challenged the incumbent [[Gerald Ford]] in over discredited [[New Deal]]-era economic theories, like wage and price controls which Nixon used and Ford supported. [[Donald Rumsfeld]], [[Karl Rove]] and [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/David_Gergen David Gergen] served as Ford delegates; [[Dick Cheney]] and [[James Baker III]] rounded up the unbound delegates for Ford.

 

Already holding the key California and Texas delegations, Reagan openly courted the unbound Pennsylvania delegation promising to put liberal [[RINO]] Sen. Richard Schweiker on the ticket. Reagan avoided the taint of the ‘smoke filled room’. Reagan and Schweicker  met personally with the entire Pennsylvania delegation to lay out the request for their support, but the idea failed. It was a unique proposal in the television age: a candidate publicly proposed a VP pick as part of a deal before any balloting. [[John Kasich]], [[Phyllis Schlafly]], [http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/04/13/trump-ally-roger-stone-attacks-mark-levin-whore-cockroach-worm-prostitute-paid-shill-ted-cruz/209898 Mark Levin], [[Jesse Helms]], and Haley Barbour served as Reagan delegates. In the end, Ford was declared the winner.   

 

The Democrats nominated political-unknown [[Jimmy Carter]], Governor of [[Georgia]] and peanut farmer, who won his party's nomination.  Under the new [[McGovern-Fraser]] delegate selection rules and expanded primary schedule, and the locking out party bosses, Carter was first to recognize the new system and successfully manipulated free television air time with early primary and caucus wins to pile up a rapid delegate lead and  donor contributions. Carter had scarce contacts with old party bosses and soon buried competitors working under the old system.

 

 

Ford campaigned on his success in his short term in the White House, while Carter campaigned based on the discontent fostered by what is known as the [[Vietnam syndrome]] and [[Misery index]] -- an index that would later come back to haunt him in the [[United States presidential election, 1980|1980 election]].  Carter basically told the people to believe in him while being short on specifics as to what that meant.

Ford campaigned on his success in his short term in the White House, while Carter campaigned based on the discontent fostered by what is known as the [[Vietnam syndrome]] and [[Misery index]] -- an index that would later come back to haunt him in the [[United States presidential election, 1980|1980 election]].  Carter basically told the people to believe in him while being short on specifics as to what that meant.